1. Choice of project and goals
Our group chose the product “Multipurpose Food Processing Machine” made by Dharamveer Kamboj. We found this project interesting as it has a lot of potential and we found value in how it could be related to several of the Sustainable Development Goals such as “Zero hunger” and “Decent work and economic development”. Having different disciplines in the group with either direct focus on sustainability like sustainable architecture and sustainable development or indirect focus like medicine made it even more interesting.
As the innovator had already sold his product to several people within India and to countries abroad, we wanted to focus on something other than new markets. During the initial talk with the innovator, it became clear that he wanted help with the marketing of his product. Having this in mind our main goal became:
Main goal:Provide input for a more strategic marketing plan to help the innovator build a strong foundation for further marketing of his product.
To achieve this goal, we did a SWOT analysis of both the machine and the marketing done by the innovator.As a result we divided the project into several subcomponents. Based on the expertise and background of all our members we chose to:
- Create a design suggestion for a new website.
- Create a brochure to be used for marketing at exhibitions.
- Suggest general improvements on other aspects of the online platforms that are already existing (such as Facebook and YouTube) and suggest how to create a more consistent branding for his business by creating a name and logo.
After the Midway Presentation at the end of week 2, it also became clear that SRISTI wanted us to look into some possible new markets. This did not become a full priority for the team, because of the limited time frame. However, we chose to send out some emails to relevant companies in Iran and Cameroon, as we had members in the group who knew key people that were in the agriculture business in these two countries
2. Presentation of results
While talking to the innovator, the team was told that he believed the machine could be sold anywhere worldwide. While looking at different ways to solve this project, we found it useful to think about the different segmentations of the markets (seen in Table 2.1). To make sure the marketing is accessible to both rural and urban areas, we chose to make a brochure template that can be used for offline marketing and a design suggestion for a new website for online marketing.
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INDIAN MARKET |
INTERNATIONAL MARKETS |
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Rural India |
Urban India |
Developing countries |
Developed countries |
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Offline marketing |
[1] |
Hybrid or offline |
Online marketing |
|
most beneficial |
Hybrid marketing |
marketing |
|
Table 2.1. Market segmentation and types of preferred marketing.
During our talk with the innovator, we were also told that he thinks that the machine can be sold to a wide variety of people. However, we wanted a smaller target group to focus on and found that the most relevant target group might be people in the agriculture business, such as small scale farmers, or for self help groups. This is because of the scale of the different models and as the versatility might be most beneficial to people who already have access to bigger amounts of farm produce than a single customer would have. The focus on people with an agricultural background as target customers is reflected in some of the choices we did, especially when it comes to the suggestions regarding branding and in the choice of using green as the main colour in the suggested colour palette due to its relations to nature and agriculture. Also the potential customers found in both Cameroon and Iran are organisations working with agriculture and with connections to farmers.
2.1 Website
A landing page is important to build the foundation of the product as this increases the product’s credibility, increases reach and showcases the different machines. It makes it possible to share information and let buyers establish contact as well as educating and inspiring on how to use the machine. To solve the problem the innovator has regarding manually guiding all his customers, we included a subpage dedicated to training that also leads to his YouTube channel for more guidance. Other design improvements are also done and are highlighted in Table 2.2 and in our presentation.
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Old website |
Suggested design |
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Tabs that leads to no content |
Only important content included |
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Focus on innovator |
Focus on product |
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Lack user guide |
Include user guide |
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Messy and crowded |
Clean and delicate |
Table 2.2. Improvements of existing website
We chose to make a design suggestion for a new website instead of making improvements on the old one and instead of developing a new one. This way was best as the old one had used a template which is hard to continue working on and we did not get administrator rights. We are also suggesting a design since this is the first step in a development process and we think it is beneficial that the partners decide how they want to go further on with this.
2.2 Brochure
To make a brochure was explicitly asked for by the innovator and we felt confident leveraging it as some of our members’ academic background is in Architecture and design as well as English and Media sociology and felt confident in what should be included. When choosing what should be included in the brochure, we also looked back to our SWOT analysis to find what key features of the machine that should be highlighted as well as using information that was provided on the existing website.
2.3 Marketing suggestions document
We made a document with all our advice and thoughts on how current marketing can be improved to have a structured way to help SRISTI and the innovator when finishing the project. This document includes general advice on improvements of online platforms, logo suggestions, in depth details of content in the brochure and website and potential customers. To design logos we got input from a graphic designer as we lack experience and were able to get advice on how it should look which is provided in this document. Ghazal came up with some sample logos as suggestions based on these advice. A proper tagline should be included so our group suggested “One Machine, Unlimited Opportunities” to highlight the versatility of the machine.
3. Value to society
We believe that this project provides a solid foundation for marketing of the product that the innovator can use to expand his business. By looking at our suggestions and improving the different aspects of his marketing, the visibility of the machine should increase.
In broader terms, results of increased sales in the long run might generate jobs and increase the income of farmers and other communities, which might result in a world where resources are divided more equally and less people have to experience unemployment. Additionally, this increased visibility might contribute towards reaching several of the Sustainable Development Goals.
4. Further development of this project
We could only come so far on this project in 3 weeks, so there are many possibilities for SRISTI, innovator and other student groups to develop this project even more. First, SRISTI should prioritise contacting the potential customers that we found.Secondly,if the innovator likes the suggested design we provided, he can commission someone to create the website, either a local developer or another student group. For all the online platforms, some high quality photos should be taken of the machine itself.
If the innovator wants to expand into international markets, he should look into hiring a translator to provide him with English information on all his platforms. For rural areas, the suggested brochure and website can be translated to other languages in non-English speaking communities if SRISTI finds that this is beneficial to make it more accessible.
We could not fully explore other competitors as this was not a part of the focus of the project. This is something that should be done after implementing changes to the marketing. The same is true for the target market. The uniqueness of this product and its varied use give room for different categories of customers, ranging from farmer’s cooperation making additional finished goods to their produce, or for hotels and restaurants serving natural juice right upto small families of about five for the smallest product, so there are several target groups the innovator can look further into.